With the advent and explosion of the Internet, network computing applications have been created that allow remote computer users to work together on a common task. For instance, applications exist that allow remote users to view a common whiteboard, to view and interact with a slide presentation, to chat with one another, and to perform other functions in a collaborative manner. This type of program typically increases productivity for users that need to collaborate but that are located in remote locations.
One shortcoming of the previous solutions for collaborating on a task via a computer network is that these previous solutions do not provide a satisfactory user experience during collaboration. For instance, the previous solutions typically suffer from reduced network performance because large amounts of data are continuously sent to all of the participants. In many cases, the application will slow drastically or even block the user from making input while data transmission is taking place. In this situation, the user will become acutely aware that the sharing process is taking place and may even become frustrated with the application.
Another reason the user experience suffers while collaborating with previous solutions stems from the fact that in a given group of collaborators there may be large discrepancies in the available network bandwidth and latency. For instance, in a given collaboration session several users may be connected to high speed local area network connections while other users may be limited to low speed dialup network connections. Utilizing the previous solutions, the users connected via dialup may have an extremely difficult time receiving and making updates to the shared document. This also can be very frustrating for a user.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the various embodiments of the present invention have been made.